A man has been in the news lately
for misunderstanding adverse possession, and taking over people’s homes when
they went out of town on vacation.
Gawker reported on the case of Robert Carr. Carr, according to Gawker, is “a
professional squatter.” Interesting
profession. Carr likely thought otherwise.
Carr chose a home in Springdale and a family that was out of town, moved
in and changed the locks. He then sued
to “quiet title” and thought he was then home free. He told reporters who showed up that he had seized
nearly a dozen homes in a similar manner and “plans to ask a judge to void the
family’s claim to the house so he can seek full ownership.”
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| Robert Carr, prior to his legal education by the police |
According to Carr: "When you abandon a property, bam, walk
away from it, 'I ain't never coming back. I don't want nothing to do with it,'
right? Somebody can come in, 'Oh, mine,'" Carr told WLWT's investigative
reporter Karin Johnson. "I have a team of people who go out and I say make
sure the house is empty. If it's empty, change the locks."
I am not an Ohio lawyer and am not
offering advice on Ohio law. But, it
doesn’t seem that Carr has an Ohio law license either. In Texas, and at common law, in order
to seek to quiet title to real property (land and what's attached to it), you have to have a legitimate
claim to title and the suit is over who has the superior claim. The doctrine of adverse possession occurs
when someone abandons a property, or piece of property, and it is openly and
notoriously held for a period of time (usually decades) after which you can sue
to get ownership. This happens in modern
times, in cities, when fences are built a foot on the wrong side of property
lines and someone wants to clean up the title to sell. If you move into someone's house
when they are on vacation, you don’t have a rightful claim to the title.
When someone leaves town on
vacation and you move in and change the locks, you are breaking and
entering. When you sell the family’s
property, you are committing robbery.
The Man has now gotten involved
and Carr has been adversely possessed and is in jail. He has bond set at $40,000 and is squatting
in jail while he is likely trying to find a lawyer to quiet title to his
backside.
So here’s your pro-tip for the
day: don’t do legal research on the Wikipedia machine if you aren’t a
lawyer. And, if something seems too good
to be true, it probably is, legally speaking.
Before trying to take someone’s property, you should see a lawyer. If you’re in Ohio, like Mr. Carr, don’t see
me, see an Ohio lawyer. If he had, this
wouldn’t have happened to Mr. Carr.
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